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three years as a fighter pilot, but also for his unassuming
and self less nature and his noble behavior toward airborne
opponents in a brutal mechanized war that had ren-
dered chivalry obsolete. The prancing stallion with which
Baracca adorned his aircraft, derived from his aristocratic
family’s coat of arms, was subsequently adopted by Enzo
Ferrari in Baracca’s honor after his death.
A few miles beyond the village of Nervesa della Battaglia,
a riverside lane opens to a wide grassy pasture in the
shadow of Montello, with sweeping northern views across
the Piave to the velveteen Prealps. This beautiful set-
ting is Campo d’Aviazione Francesco Baracca, home to
the Fondazione Jonathan Collection. Both the airfield
and the collection—named after Richard Bach’s Jonathan
Livingston Seagull—are the brainchild of GiancarloZanardo. Giancarlo’s long fascination with aviation began
as a young child during WWII, when he would sneak out
of the family bomb shelter to gaze at the Allied fighter-
bombers roaring over his village. Giancarlo learned to f ly in
1966 and soon found himself at the forefront of the nascent
Italian homebuilding movement, building an autogyro, a
single-seat helicopter and a fixed-wing microlight in quick
succession. After buying his first biplane—a de Havilland
Tiger Moth—Giancarlo built a replica of the Fokker Dr.1
triplane, famous mount of the “Red Baron,” Manfred von
Richthofen. Many other projects soon followed, and the
Jonathan Collection was born.
When Federico and I visited, Giancarlo and a half-
dozen volunteers were busy preparing for their biggest
event of the year, Francesco Baracca Day, held annually
on the anniversary of the ace’s death. Giancarlo has led
a memorial f ly-by of the Baracca monument every year
since 1966, as well as hosted a f ly-in for the past 23 years.
Usually over 60 vintage, homebuilt and modern air-
craft attend. In the United States, that would be a modest
EA A f ly-in pancake breakfast, but in Italy, it is one of the
largest annual gatherings of sport aircraft. And so afterintroductions, Federico and I left Giancarlo and his band
of volunteers to their labors and started our exploration
of the Jonathan Collection.
All of the collection’s aircraft are homebuilt replicas,
with the exception of Giancarlo’s original 1941 Tiger
Moth, I-GATO All incorporate improvements over the
original designs, most notably modern aircraft engines.
The original rotary engines of most WWI aircraft—never
reliable to begin with—are now all but impossible to obtain
and maintain in running condition. The replicas also
feature modern instrumentation and radios; these are
aircraft that are meant to f ly, to bring history alive for new
generations. Most take to the skies over the Piave regularly,
and several have completed major tours across Europe.
The first aircraft we inspected—a Wright 1903
Flyer—was the only one in the world to f ly on the 100th
anniversary of the original’s first f lights. This one has a
number of improvements that gave it a big leg up on the
Wright Experience’s more faithful copy: a modern Rotax
engine, a control stick (versus the original’s harness) and
improved longitudinal stability achieved by fixing one
of the two movable canards. But the basic structure, and
the original wing-warping arrangement, is preser ved
exactly, and it really f lies. Likewise, the collection’s 1909
Bleriot XI replica sports a modern Continental C-85 with
triple the horsepower of the original airplane, but the
airframe is essentially correct down to the wing-warping
controls. Giancarlo actually f lew this one across the
English Channel in July 1989 for the 80th anniversary of
Bleriot’s globe-shrinking exploit.
The most impressive and ambitious of the collection’s
aircraft is, sadly, not currently f lying due to the failure of
one of its three Ford V-6 engines. The Caproni Ca.3 abso-
lutely dominates its hangar, which it shares with several
other replicas that were damaged in the historic Piave
River f looding last fall. Introduced in 1914, the Caproni has
been described as the world’s first strategic bomber, and
with a 75-foot wingspan it was one of the largest airplanes
of WWI. Even today, it’s impressive.
While we were admiring the Ca.3, Federico and I
were joined by Daniele Beltrame, one of the Jonathan
Collection’s test and exhibition pilots, as well as an active
airshow pilot and homebuilder in his own right (Google
“Aerogallo” for a good chuckle). His English is quite
good, and he offered to show me around. He led us to the
canvas-and-timber 1918 Bessoneau hangar—one of only
two extant today—which houses the heart of the collec-
tion: the Tiger Moth, the Fokker Dr.1, a Sopwith Camel and
a Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5. To me, the most beautiful
aircraft of the collection is the Spad XIII—very much like
the one in which Francesco Baracca scored many of his
kills, right down to the 91st Squadriglia colors and the
prancing-stallion insignia. Daniele invited me to sit in the
cockpits of the Tiger Moth, the Fokker, the S.E.5 and the
Spad, and they were interesting to compare.
No f lying was originally on the schedule for the day,
but then Giancarlo decided that the parking lanes forTAKING WING Dove la Storia Decolla
Giancarlo Zanardo prepares to fly his 1941 Tiger Moth, I-GATO.